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 News from Around the Americas | July 2006 
Latin American Countries Condemn Israeli Attack on Lebanon
 Yao Runping - Xinhua
| | Red Cross members line up bodies after an Israeli air raid on Qana killed 57 people, half of them children, in south Lebanon, July 30, 2006. (Xinhua) |
Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela have all condemned Israel's attack on the southern Lebanon village of Qana on Sunday, which killed more than 57 Lebanese citizens, and at least half of whom were children.
In a statement published by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he rejected "the acts of indiscriminate violence and the use of military force against civilian targets by all parties" in the conflict.
He restated Brazil's call for an immediate ceasefire in the region, and said that he had asked Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim to support a measure suggested by the United Nations (UN) Security Council for a ceasefire.
Lebanese officials have separately said that around 750 people have died in the country since July 12 when Israel started a campaign of airstrikes after a Lebanon-based guerilla group kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight. Hezbollah has killed 50 Israelis since that date.
Lula added that Israel had ignored a request by Brazil to stop bombing the roads used to evacuate Latin Americans.
Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it also supported a call by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to end hostilities in southern Lebanon.
"Only this will end the irreplaceable loss of civilian life and help ease the serious humanitarian crisis, which is already affecting a large part of the Lebanese population," it said.
The statement added Mexico had made several calls for peace and strict compliance with international law by the region's political actors.
Mexico said it condemned the tactics used by Hezbollah such as launching rockets at civilians in Israel, as much as those by Israel against Lebanon described as a disproportionate use of force.
In Venezuela, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said on the same day that the government joined the worldwide rejection of Israel's attack,
"This murder of dozens of women and children has no justification whatsoever," he said in a published statement.
The UN and other powerful nations shared blame for the attack because they had responded to Israel's military campaign in Palestine and Lebanon with "silence and omissions."
"Venezuela has never had any anti-Jewish attitudes, recognizes the existence of Israel as a state, welcomes the Jewish community and guarantees its total respect," the statement said. |
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